Courtesy aapracingandsports

Thursday, 31 October 2002:


Melbourne Cup favourite Vinnie Roe has hit a major hurdle in his preparation for Tuesday's race forcing trainer Dermot Weld to revise plans for the Irish champion.

Weld had planned to ship Vinnie Roe to Flemington tomorrow for a vital gallop.

But within hours of arriving in Melbourne on Thursday, Weld cancelled the trip.

Instead he will keep Vinnie Roe at his Sandown base and will spend the weekend in a last-ditch attempt to get him right for the Cup.

The trainer, who had not been expected in Melbourne until Sunday, flew in from Dublin this morning and immediately went to the Sandown quarantine stables where the horse has spent the past four weeks.

"I have to say that I'm concerned about him," Weld said after inspecting Vinnie Roe.

"He didn't travel well and he hasn't really picked up as I would have liked him to.

"He didn't look himself, he was dull in the coat and just not right."

The setback has left Weld, who is recognised as one of the world's most astute trainers, with only four days to turn things around.

He said he had planned to ship Vinnie Roe, a horse he described as the best he has trained since his 1993 Melbourne Cup winner Vintage Crop, to Flemington tomorrow for a gallop he had hoped would shed a lot of light on his Cup prospects.

But Vinnie Roe will now have have a more conservative workout at Sandown.

The warning signs have been up for Vinnie Roe almost from the day he arrived and Weld has been on record saying he wasn't happy with the horse's progress.

But the concerns seemed to ease after the horse completed what appeared to an impressive gallop at Flemington on Tuesday.

Vinnie Roe was timed to break 36 seconds for the final 600m of the 1600m workout and appeared to pull up well.

After a quiet day, he emerged at Sandown with race jockey Pat Smullen in the saddle for a piece of work that only added to the air of mystery surrounding the horse.

Rather than test Vinnie Roe in a serious gallop, Smullen hardly had him out of a canter and the pair left the track after completing one casual lap.

By contrast, Media Puzzle, a brilliant winner of last week's Geelong Cup, pushed on for a second circuit, finishing his work off in dashing style.

"I couldn't be happier with Media Puzzle, it's just a case of one horse travelling well and one who hasn't," Weld said.

"But it would be fair to say we've had to nurse Vinnie along a bit."

While Weld's concerns are bound to cause bookmakers to reconsider their Cup markets, they are also likely to treat the situation with a certain amount of caution.

Before Vintage Crop's momentous win nine years ago, Weld had taken a similar conservative line saying the horse had travelled badly and had failed to regain weight lost on the trip.

Vintage Crop duly galloped to one of the more impressive Cup wins of recent times.

Among the other international Cup hopes, Beekeeper was the star of track session.

The Godolphin runner has improved dramatically in condition since running sixth in the Caulfield Cup and trainer Saeed bin Suroor has been singing the horse's praises since arriving here on Tuesday.

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Ta me go maith